Mullins didn't play. Told me a precaution but will play like next week. The young tall freshmen looked good. And gee the tech transfer eligible for next year looks like a beast, but didn't play. Trey Murphy may have grown over the summer and looked good. I think he is going to have a breakout year.

I am pretty optimistic

The Owls were installing a trapping defense and ran that they ran almost exclusively last night. Talked to a few of the players and they said the team is most comfortable in a zone defense and realize that they need to pick up the defensive intensity this year to succeed. Trey Murphy was the most skilled player on the floor last night and he did the majority of the scoring. His shot continues to impress and he is not afraid to shoot. He also drove to the bucket with regularity, something he did not do as often last year. Robert Martin played with the most intensity and Zach Crisler played well in spurts. It was good to see the guards sink their free throws at the end of the scrimmage. This team can play fast so they should be fun to watch.

For the last several minutes with his team behind Martin hit about 5 3’s in a row.

Nice summary on the scrimmage. Hope the development continues apace.

On the prediction side, I'm not overly optimistic about a leap yet. I think I land in the 12-14 win range for the regular season. If I must take a specific number, I'll go with 14. I liked how the team tightened things up as the season went along last year and seemed to steal a couple more wins than many of us expected. So I'll be on the top end of my range.

Thanks for the scrimmage updates for those in the know!

I don't follow other teams or college basketball generally enough for me to make an educated prediction about the OOC results. CUSA seems to be about the same every year, though the best teams and worst teams can shuffle around within the standings. Last year, Rice was 13-19 overall and 8-10 in CUSA. I think the team will be better overall because I believe the combination of the newcomers and improvement from the returners will exceed the transfer and graduations. Then I like to be a little optimistic about things, so I'll round up a bit. Also, Rice lost a big handful of games late and I think the team will have more maturity to hang on in those situations.

So I will guess 12-6 in CUSA and 19-12 overall. So a nice jump that allows Rice to finish in the ~125-150 range and maybe buy our way into an alphabet soup post-season tournament if the team can win 1-2 games in the CUSA tournament. My hope is that Rice goes into pod play with a legit chance at earning a CUSA tournament bye (top-4 finish).

Not seeing anything at all from the SFA scrimmage today. Something typically leaks out but nothing so far.

I'll predict Men's Hoops this season wins more than Men's Footbal has/will in 2019 and 2020 combined. Limb, out on?

(10-26-2019 11:28 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I'll predict Men's Hoops this season wins more than Men's Footbal has/will in 2019 and 2020 combined. Limb, out on?

Not much

A poster on SFA's forum said that we lost by 5. Should never put too much stock in scrimmages, but SFA should be a team that we're able to beat this year. Something like nine of the guys on their roster are either freshmen or JuCo recruits. Biggest thing is making sure there were no injuries.

Very enjoyable night for MBB season ticket holders and 3 Pt Club members at Adam Peakes home. It was interesting watching the team members reactions to the comments made by Dan Rather and Jeff Van Gundy. Also thought Adam’s advice “from someone who feels like he played a 100 years ago” on point. Adam encouraged the players to embrace the uniqueness of the student body and to take advantage of meeting and taking advice from Rice grads and supporters as they think of life after basketball.

(10-30-2019 10:07 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Very enjoyable night for MBB season ticket holders and 3 Pt Club members at Adam Peakes home. It was interesting watching the team members reactions to the comments made by Dan Rather and Jeff Van Gundy. Also thought Adam’s advice “from someone who feels like he played a 100 years ago” on point. Adam encouraged the players to embrace the uniqueness of the student body and to take advantage of meeting and taking advice from Rice grads and supporters as they think of life after basketball.

I agree it was a very enjoyable night. I also heard that the transfer from Texas Tech is extremely good and will be a huge contributor next year.

(10-27-2019 09:35 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  A poster on SFA's forum said that we lost by 5. Should never put too much stock in scrimmages, but SFA should be a team that we're able to beat this year. Something like nine of the guys on their roster are either freshmen or JuCo recruits. Biggest thing is making sure there were no injuries.

Mullins didn't play. Murphy slipped and hurt his tailbone and didn't play after 5 minutes in. We also emptied the bench. Both will play tomorrow night. We'll have a better idea then.

Van Gundy had some interesting remarks. He said he sees about 6 Rice home games a year. He isn't as interested in wins and losses, but feels good about a game if he sees 3 things. 1. are they playing hard. 2. do they play smart. 3. Do they play together as a team. He thought we did all three. He really likes Pera and thought he was building a sustainable winner. Mentioned how all the freshmen looked like a deer in the headlights early in the season, but how much they improved citing the 3 conference wins in a row late in the year.

(10-30-2019 01:12 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  

(10-27-2019 09:35 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  A poster on SFA's forum said that we lost by 5. Should never put too much stock in scrimmages, but SFA should be a team that we're able to beat this year. Something like nine of the guys on their roster are either freshmen or JuCo recruits. Biggest thing is making sure there were no injuries.

Mullins didn't play. Murphy slipped and hurt his tailbone and didn't play after 5 minutes in. We also emptied the bench. Both will play tomorrow night. We'll have a better idea then.

??? Chris told me today will be his first day back at practice and he didn't expect to play tomorrow night.

(10-30-2019 01:22 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 01:12 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  

(10-27-2019 09:35 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  A poster on SFA's forum said that we lost by 5. Should never put too much stock in scrimmages, but SFA should be a team that we're able to beat this year. Something like nine of the guys on their roster are either freshmen or JuCo recruits. Biggest thing is making sure there were no injuries.

Mullins didn't play. Murphy slipped and hurt his tailbone and didn't play after 5 minutes in. We also emptied the bench. Both will play tomorrow night. We'll have a better idea then.

??? Chris told me today will be his first day back at practice and he didn't expect to play tomorrow night.

The first rule of 3pt club is make sure to feed Walt some misleading info to throw him off track a little.

(10-30-2019 11:30 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 01:22 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 01:12 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  

(10-27-2019 09:35 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  A poster on SFA's forum said that we lost by 5. Should never put too much stock in scrimmages, but SFA should be a team that we're able to beat this year. Something like nine of the guys on their roster are either freshmen or JuCo recruits. Biggest thing is making sure there were no injuries.

Mullins didn't play. Murphy slipped and hurt his tailbone and didn't play after 5 minutes in. We also emptied the bench. Both will play tomorrow night. We'll have a better idea then.

??? Chris told me today will be his first day back at practice and he didn't expect to play tomorrow night.

The first rule of 3pt club is make sure to feed Walt some misleading info to throw him off track a little.

I thought the first rule of 3pt club was you do not talk about 3 pt club.

So it sounds like St. Edwards will be a good test for us. According to Rice's pregame notes, they're ranked #20 and return 12 players from last year's team (including all five starters).

Three Man Weave preview

12. Rice

Key Returners: Chris Mullins, Ako Adams, Robert Martin, Drew Peterson, Trey Murphy, Josh Parrish
Key Losses: Quentin Millora-Brown (transfer), Jack Williams
Key Newcomers: Zach Crisler, Quincy Olivari, Max Fiedler, Tommy McCarthy (Harvard)

Lineup:



Outlook: Year two of the Scott Pera era (the P-era!!) saw the Owls take slight steps forward despite personnel losses last offseason, as Rice saw a 6-win improvement overall, including going from 4-14 to 8-10 within Conference USA. Granted, three of those wins came after the new C-USA “flex scheduling” had sorted the Owls into the league’s bottom tier, but wins are wins. For a team that ranked 318th nationally in minutes continuity and 333rd in experience, per KenPom, showing improvement of any kind is notable, and it’s reasonable to expect that roster to progress even more this year.

Pera was known more as a recruiter in his assistant days while working under Herb Sendek at Arizona State, Jerome Allen at Penn, and Mike Rhoades at Rice – perhaps the name James Harden rings a bell? That’s an extremely diverse set of coaching styles to have been a part of, though, and it seems Pera has been trying to settle on his own identity as a head coach.

Part of the reason for Rice’s improvement was one of the more drastic stylistic shifts in the country for a team playing under the same coach. In Pera’s first year, the Owls were one of the most zone-heavy teams in the country, playing it 93% of the time, but that number dropped precipitously to only 2% in 2018-19, with many telling defensive stats trending similarly:



Unsurprisingly, the Owls gave up fewer threes and assisted jumpers while beefing up their defensive rebounding, all clear signs of moving away from zone. Pera’s man-to-man was also a more conservative one, sitting back and walling off the paint rather than extending into passing lanes.

The shift to man-to-man was aided by the addition of a strong recruiting class and two “down-transfers,” increasing the depth, size, and athleticism of the roster. Sophomores Drew Peterson and Trey Murphy are two taller wings, and TCU transfer Josh Parrish is a high-level athlete and defensive whiz. The “size” portion took a hit this offseason, though, as sophomore Quentin Millora-Brown transferred and grad transfer Jack Williams graduated. That means early playing time for freshmen Zach Crisler and Max Fiedler, two 3-star recruits.

Pera also showed a very distinct system offensively: put the ball in the hands of his playmakers, namely senior Ako Adams and sophomore Chris Mullins, and let them go to work. Rice ran one of the highest percentages of ball screens in the country, per Synergy, while also ranking highly in dribble handoffs. With both guards back, expect that to continue, and Mullins in particular should amp up his efficiency with more experience. Freshman Quincy Olivari and Harvard grad transfer Tommy McCarthy provide depth, but neither should be leaned on as a primary piece this year. Stretch four Robert Martin helps extend the defense with his perimeter shooting, and Pera’s embrace of the deep ball has paid dividends thus far in his tenure.

Bottom Line: As Pera grows more comfortable in his position, a more cogent identity should form on the court for the Owls, which may in turn slow down the flow of transfers out of the program (this summer was better than last, at least). Year three will be pivotal to see if he can get the roster to coalesce together into something more than a “bottom tier” C-USA team, and despite the team’s youth in the interior, another step should be expected on the shoulders of Adams, Mullins, and Martin.

(10-09-2019 06:00 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  No info on how the new guys look, but I think this has to be a breakout year for the team. We can’t blame youth anymore and while we don’t have a true proven center we have plenty of size. Can we play with the intensity on defense we need? I sure hope so, we’ll be able to rotate through 10 guys and play man almost exclusively. No more zone woes like we had in year 1 even though we have the size to play like a Syracuse if we wanted (if we let Rob be the “PG” we could go 6’6 6’8 6’8 6’9 6’10). Don’t remember a rice lineup like that in the last 10 years.

OOC:
Prediction 9-4.
Best case: 10-3 losses to Arkansas, UH and Liberty
Worst case: 7-6 we don’t win any of the toss up games we need in a breakout year.

In conference:
Prediction: 8-6
Best case: 9-5 we only drop 1 at home to UTEP and steal some on the road
Worst case: 4-10 don’t win any road games. Lost to UTSA, UTEP and ODU at home.

Think my prediction gets us to the top of tier 2 but I’m not sure we can make it to the top tier this year. Prove me wrong Owls. That’s 5 more games, if we’re in the middle tier I’d like us to go 3-2 or 4-1 and put a 20 win season in reach.

Just a guess:
Starter/Bench
G Adams/McCarthy/Myers
G Mullins/Moore/Olivari
G Murphy III/Parrish/Owen
F Martin/Peterson/Moffat
F Fiedler/Crisler/Harrison

Olivari is 3rd on that list but I think he’ll get good playing time. Murphy has the size to guard Forwards which allows flexibility. Hoping Harrison makes a big step forward but if not then I’d play the freshmen.

1 transfer sitting on the bench in 6’10 Ondigo from Tx Tech.

Looking reasonable so far. Need to improve our rebounding (this has helped Fiedler get some good minutes) and keep working on 40 min of defense. Think the UH game showed us we need to rotate more off the bench and maybe Murphy healing a couple of games will force that.

The way our conference has started I think we can make some noise. Let’s get to that top tier!
Charlotte looks better than expected
USM seems beatable
MTSU seems bad
Marshall is beatable
UAB dismisses their best player and doesn’t look great
LaTech is unknown
UTSA started worse than I thought they’d be
UTEP looks to be the class of the conference
WKU will be a tough matchup but can lose to decent teams (like last night)
UNT looks worse than expected
ODU dependable but beatable
F_U should beat at home

I do wonder if we applied for our transfer to play immediately. The NCAA is a joke and it’s worth the shot. Izzo resigned from his seat on the National basketball coaching association board because the NCAA denied his waiver request, and I completely agree their decisions have no basis anymore.

It's early, but Pomeroy has the top 3 teams as:

(86) Louisiana Tech (4-1)
(91) Western Kentucky (4-1)
(105) UTEP (4-0)

The Massey Composite has:

(80) Western Kentucky
(94) Old Dominion (3-1)
(108) Louisiana Tech